Gigaclear to bring high-speed broadband to Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire villages

Residents of eight villages could soon get the highest broadband speeds.

Broadband firm Gigaclear has signed a deal to bring its fibre-to-the-home network to Tallington, Bainton, Barnack, Helpston, Marholm, Ashton, Pilsgate and Ufford.

If 30 per cent of residents sign up, the company will connect to the Peterborough CORE network, currently being built by CityFibre. GigaClear will then be able to offer speeds of up to 1,000Mpbs for both downloads and uploads to rural residents.

The deal was signed thanks to the efforts of campaigners fighting to improve speeds in their area. Tallington resident Ken Otter said: “We had heard about the CityFibre project in Peterborough and were aware of Gigaclear’s rural broadband capabilities and decided that rather than go for a stop-gap solution that extends the life of our existing copper based communications, we wanted something that guarantees speeds to all residents for now and the future.

“Campaigning through Peterborough City Council we have managed to get these leading communications providers to take our area seriously.”

Peterborough City Council leader Marco Cereste (Con) said: “People in rural areas have long-complained of slow broadband and so I am delighted Gigaclear is planning to bring incredibly high speeds to villages around Peterborough.

“Having the fastest broadband speeds won’t just make it better for residents, it will also help businesses in rural areas and make it more attractive for some companies to move there.

“This is another step in making Peterborough and the surrounding area amongst the best connected places in the world.”

Sales and marketing director Joe Frost said: “We are delighted to take this opportunity, working with Peterborough City Council and CityFibre who can provide us with the network backhaul capacity we need to build this network. We are looking forward to starting to work with these communities to understand the level of demand, and being able to help them thrive.”